1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to perpendicular recording write heads and method of fabricating such write heads.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recording densities of magnetic hard drives continue to increase to meet the increasing desired storage requirements. Single-pole-type perpendicular recording is a technology which has the potential of achieving areal densities of greater than or equal to approximately 120 Gigabytes/square inch (e.g., 160 Gigabytes/square inch). In such single-pole-type perpendicular recording, magnetic flux passes from a tip of a first pole into the magnetic media, travels through the magnetically-soft underlayer beneath the magnetic media, and returns to a second pole. Examples of such a single-pole-type perpendicular recording technology are described by M. Mallary, A. Torabi, and M. Benakli, “One Terabit per Square Inch Perpendicular Recording Conceptual Design,” IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 38, pp. 1719-1724 (2002), which is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein, and U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 33,949, which is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein and which is a reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,546 issued to Mallary et al.